People got the opportunity to learn about Mark Twain and the Mississippi River today.

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum held a public symposium, where audience members had the chance to engage with five accomplished scholars and professors.

The speakers offered insight into the works and ideas of the country's greatest humorist and social commentator as they relate to the Mighty Mississippi.

Thomas Smith, a Lecturer at the University of East Angila in Great Britain was the keynote speaker.

He presented his newest work, River of Dreams.

During his address he provided early context of , Americana, the river, and Mark Twain, in both the national and international imagination.

And even though Smith grew up and still lives overseas he says Mark Twain enthralled the world and said if your going to think about American Literature, that Mark Twain is going to stand out as one of the giants, a figure you need to have some kind of relationship with.

"Well I suppose in a sense he defines so many things about American Culture not just in his own time, but in our own time as well his writings seem endlessly implacable to different times different places, in a way I suppose all great literature is, so he's definitely one of the world's greatest ones." said Thomas Ruys Smith.

Smith told us that this is his first time to Hannibal and the midwest.

He says of all the places he seen the Mississippi, he's enjoyed it the most while in America's hometown, talking about how serene and beautiful it was.